Fox News is “Fair and Balanced” no more.
In an effort to distance the conservative network even further from late founder and ex-CEO Roger Ailes, executives made the decision to abandon the iconic slogan:
The decision was made last August after Ailes’s ouster by Fox News co-president Jack Abernethy, because the phrase had “been mocked,” one insider said. Another executive explained that the tagline was “too closely associated with Roger.”
Fox dropping “Fair and Balanced” is like Barry Manilow coming out of the closet at 70. Who exactly was still being fooled?
— Alex Bosworth (@Alexbosworth51) June 15, 2017
The new slogan? “Most Watched. Most Trusted.”
But is the “Most Watched” part even true? After firing popular host Bill O’Reilly in April, Fox News dropped behind MSNBC and CNN in a key demographic rating for the first time in 15 years.
Indeed, changing the slogan might be worse than keeping it:
It is hard to overstate the significance of what shedding “Fair & Balanced” means for Fox News. (It would be like the New York Times giving up “All the News That’s Fit to Print.”) Ailes invented the slogan when he launched the network in 1996, and over the years it became a quasi-religious doctrine among Fox’s anchors and viewers. The effectiveness of Fox News as a vehicle for conservative ideology depended on it. “If you come out and you try to do right-wing news, you’re gonna die. You can’t get away with it,” Ailes once told a reporter.
H/T NYMag
Then again, Fox News could use a serious re-brand. Hardline conservatives have gone elsewhere for news, and between the departure of Megyn Kelly, accusations of sexual misconduct directed at Ailes and O’Reilly, a massive racial discrimination lawsuit, and the rumors surrounding Sean Hannity, the network has been steeped in scandal.
Will Fox News continue to be the most watched and most trusted? Time will tell.
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